Shafer: Best of the best

Garrett Shafer, Student columnist

Posted:
11/23/2012 10:29:50 AM MST

State. It's something that every athlete dreams about, but few actually make it that far. State champions, something that only an elite group gets to say they are, and last week it started with 6-man football. November isn't just a time for thanksgiving but also a time for leaders to step up and stars to shine. This year there were some big upsets throughout the state but none bigger than the No. 1 team in the state losing to a 16-seed in the first round.

Every team in the state at this point is good and they all want to be the best. In most games it doesn't come down to who has the better athletes but rather who wants it more. Playoff games are literally a game of inches. In the game of football a change of momentum can happen faster than a blink of an eye. In any game the team that wins usually did the little things right -- knowing the snap count, knowing who you have in pass protection or knowing who blitzes most of the time in a certain situation.

Every time you got up early to go lift before work or did that extra rep or went to go running all paid off to get you to where you are now, but that's not enough anymore. What are you willing to do to win? When you're sucking air in the fourth quarter and it comes down to one play, are you going to be someone who your team trusts to be in there? Or are you going to be "that guy" who sits down someday after graduation and wishes he could go back and try harder?

Our coaches always tell us to play without regret, because when you have regrets about how you played it won't go away.

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It'll sit in your gut and burn and no matter what you do there won't be anything that you can do to change it. One hundred and ten percent, all game every game. By now you might know if it'll be your last game ever so what do you have to lose? Give your all. I would give anything to still be playing right now but unfortunately that's not how it works.

This week before the big game when you're in the locker room with just your team waiting for the coaches, when you look into your teams eyes don't look to see if they're ready.

You wouldn't be there if they weren't ready to play.

Instead look into their eyes and remember what they look like. Remember the locker room, the smells of eye black on already sweaty skin. Remember the feeling of putting your shoes on before the game. Take it all in and try to remember everything, then when it's time to take care of business don't think about anything else.

Focus all your energy on the job and what you have to do to take that next step of calling yourself a state champion.